


No One.

by trebleDeath



Series: That one Au [4]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cheating, Fainting, M/M, Multi, Other, idk - Freeform, intense relationship trials, useless side character developement, uunnecesary plot split offs.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-10 01:51:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3272351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trebleDeath/pseuds/trebleDeath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Can a long term, long distamce relationship work out?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> whatevers. Ended it after nine chaps.

John sat down on his bed and opened his laptop and opened skype. It was usually after his last class that Dave was on.

Despite what it sounded like, having a boyfriend who didn’t go to college, was actually pretty nice, there was no scheduling or anything.

Though the fact that he was in Texas most of the time made it a little difficult. But with visits over the weekends sometimes and skype calls everyday, it would work.

John clicked on the skype username, only recognizing it by the icon of a crudely drawn man. Today, it seemed Dave was in the mood to go by ‘Pilot shit blazer’, truly a title to capture his essence.

John chuckled and waited for Dave to answer.

A couple moments later, he accepted, but it was not the blonde dork greeting him, it was a girl.

“Oh my god, I told you not to fucking answer it!” Dave’s voice in the background, the girl put a hand out, presumably to stop Dave from getting any closer.

“It was beeping, and I wanted to see who it was.”

“Well, who is it?”

“I don’t know. A nerd in glasses, but like, a hot nerd.”

“That would be John.” Dave seemed to manage to get free from the redhaired girls grasp as he pushed her out of the way and got control over his laptop again.

“Dave, where is your shirt?” John asked, fighting the urge to bite his lip. The girl wasn’t wearing a shirt either. 

“Dude. It’s May, may in Texas is super fucking hot, why on earth would I wear a shirt?”

John nodded, that would make sense…

“So, I’m done with classes first week of June, was wondering if you wanted to visit for a couple weeks.”

“Uh, sure, why not. I’ll check my schedule and get back to you.” He seemed to be in a hurry to get back to whatever he was doing.

“God Dave, you're taking so long!” It was the girl again. She moved and flopped onto Dave’s back.

“Hush, I’m talking.” He rolled his eyes, this time it was visible, his shades off for some reason.

“Cool,” John nodded, “Hey, I think you should come down this weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you in person.”

Dave nodded, “Yeah, I’m sure Dirk would like to come with me, is your cousin going to be in town?”

John shrugged, “Dunno. I can text him, he’d probs get over here. Hell, he’d pay for everything to get Dirk here.”

Dave gave a small chuckle, “Listen, I’d love to talk about you and your cousin, but I need to go. I left something half done.”

“Yeah you did!” The girl called out, looking frustrated. 

Dave signed off before John could utter “I love you,”

Yep. He was having sex. With another person. 

John flopped onto his back, making the stupid dorm bed protests loudly. With an exaggerated sigh for no one but himself to hear.

As the sigh turned into a groan, he groped for his phone, knowing he left it on the bedside table where it was in reach if only he exerted the effort to lift his head and look.

After a moment of blindly groping and letting his frustration grow, he found the phone. He took it and scrolled through his contacts before coming upon Jade’s name with a little pawprint by it. How she managed to get that into everyone’s phone was beyond him, but she did.

“Jaaaaaadeedeeeee,” He moaned as the answer tone sounded.

Finally she answered. “John, I was napping”

“When are you not napping?”

“Last night when I was dealing with mechanics and programmings that you have no chance of understanding?”

“Wow, you know how to burn a bitch.” Despite his attitude, and Jade’s for that matter, he spoke with a smile in his voice; Jade was always fun to talk to, 

“Yeah I do. Now tell me, what do you want? I have shit to do.”

“Like nap?”

“Exactly.”

“Well, tell me how you and Karkat met, like the whole shabang, I don’t want you to leave out any details.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s proposing to you and asked me to make a childrens book based on how you two met.”

She burst out laughing, “Oh my god, that’s funny John. Like Karkat would ever ask you to help. Besides, we all know I’m going to be the one to propose.”

“I know, just thought it’d be easier to say that than to explain.”

“Well, I’ll tell you then you have to tell me why, okay?”

“Deal.”

“Kay, well when I was interested in getting hormone supplements, I went to Texas. To the town I think you lived in when you were like, eight. I don’t know if you remember it, but it’s this itty bitty town and people know each other. So I was supposed to live on my own for this independence program whatever it was, but I actually lived with the English’s and they took care of me while I used the money Nanna and Poppop were sending to get supplements and I was all the way out there, it was pretty damn great, everyone was nice.

Either way, I started dating this girl like halfway through this year, y’know, she was nice and cute and I didn’t want to turn her down. Either way, it didn’t work out eight, cause I’m straight, don’t really like girls. That and this boy kept on trying to get with me though I was with his sister, or was it cousin? Don’t know. Whatever, after we broke up, I started dating this boy, and-”

“It was Dave right?” John interjected.

“Yeah, it was Dave, we went off and on, till senior year, AKA the year I had to leave then I came home and I was gorgeous and everything was great. Yeah, that year. Well that year I learned he was cheating on me with this short grumpy chubby boy who happened to be the Pastor's son who tucked his shirt into his sweatpants and didn’t talk to anyone unless he was insulting them. 

I was angry and hit Dave. But after that we kept a pretty okay relationship for the rest of the year. 

Either way, the kid, was heart broken, like, he understood no one would actually ever like him because he was loud and angry all the time and just, basically everything wrong with a high school kid who’s bisexual. Loud, greasy hair, acne, overweight, not really good at anything, reads romance novels. Basically he hit a streak of oil and gold when Dave took interest in him. 

Yeah, he didn't talk to anyone for a month, but I felt bad for him and started talking to him, and he never really talked back until one day he started yelling at me, the usual. I was the ugly whore of a tranny bitch who stole his boy friend, all that. I think even a couple empty threats. 

Well. I was just as hurt as him and I just went off on his ass,” Jade let out a small chuckle, “That shut him up real good. And then he started crying like the huge nerd he is. So I comforted him, and we’ve been friends since. And we have sex too, so there’s that.”

John chuckled, “I still think it’s great how you can meet like that. Not just the cheating thing, but the fact that you yelled at each other and miraculously hit it off into a relationship that has lasted for years.”

“Yeah, that’s not even the miraculous part. His dad was moving to Washington the same time I was going back to Jake and Poppop and Nanna. JUst like, an hour away! That’s the miracle. He was so concerned that I would forget about him after he moved.”

“Dude, and now you two are going to live together for the rest of your lives.”

“Maybe, if he can come to terms with marriage.”

“Ha, how long do you think that will be?”

“Never, we’re going to just be friends who have sex sometimes and kiss when we’re eighty with three dogs and a kid who's all grown up. Like honestly, he says he knows everything about romance, yet he can never get me a ring.”

 

John laughed again, “Karkat’s great. Well thanks Jade, hope things work out. I gotta go.”

“No you don’t. You still owe me an explanation, why did you need to hear my story of romance?”

“Oh,” Shit, it was too late to make up a believable lie, “Um, I was curious?”

“Great, but why now?”

“Um. Because I know you had a history with Dave and I wanted to know more about my boyfriend?”

“Why did you phrase that like a question?”

“Because. Well Jade, love ya, but like I said, I should be going.” He hung up the phone before she could ask any more questions.

He sighed and let his phone fell out of his hand onto the bed, bouncing slightly before settling. A history of cheating, and honestly, he doubted this time it would lead to cute romance on the other side. 

Sighing, he picked up his phone again and scrolled through it, finally finding Rose’s contact. They promised to keep in touch after Christmas, but that ended up a dud.

Unlike Jade the phone was answered almost immediately, “John, I knew it was only a matter of time, but what a perfect instance for you to call.”

She sounded excited.

“Uh, hi. So, um, this is an odd question, but what’s Dave doing right now? Assuming you’re in the same place.”

“My my, being the jealous ex already?”

John was silent for a moment, “What? Dave and I are still dating.”

It was Rose’s turn to be silent. “Huh. I was under the impression you broke up.”

“Did Dave tell you we broke up? Maybe he was supposed to tell me and didn’t.” By then, John was chewing on the inside of his cheek.

“No. He didn’t say anything, he’s just been very withdrawn. He hasn’t talked about you much and he’s had the same girl over a couple of times. In fact, I believe they’re having sex upstairs…”

“Oh. Um, okay, well. Uh,” He stuttered, trying to form any thought.

“John. Would you like to talk?” All the previous excitement gone from her voice, replaced by concern.

“No.”

“Well, then would you like me to do something, find out information or anything?” 

“No. It’s my problem, and I think I’ve already snooped too much. I’ll deal with it over the weekend, he’s supposed to come over.”

“Okay. Well, I hope you resolve things. And when I say that, remember, that breaking it off is a valid resolution.”

He nodded before realizing she couldn’t see him, “Yeah, thanks.”

He hung up his phone again and let it drop to the mattress. 

Moments later, he picked it up again and sent a quick text to his boy- no Dave. Just Dave. Considering the way things were going, it would probably stay like that.

“Hey, tomorrow when you come over, I think we should have a talk.”

Nothing too mean, seeing as the brunette was still slinging to the hope that it would be alright. 

He set the phone down rather than throwing it, waiting for a reply. None came.

He turned onto his side and watched the screen of his phone turn dark, his mood having done that minutes before. 

“Dammit” He muttered allowed. Still, there was no one around to hear. No one.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> startted callin him mr./ egbert to rack up word count.
> 
> my intestines are eating me.

John sat down at a nice cafe, the outside kind. Which happened to also be the kind that wasn’t very popular. Not because their food wasn’t good, or because it was always rainy or snowy in Washington.

“Hey, I was at your house and your dad said you weren’t there. Thought I could find you here.” Dave leaned down and pecked John’s cheek, “It’s been like, two or three weeks hasn’t it?”

John nodded “Yeah. And even longer since Dirk saw Jake.”

“You’d think it was longer. You should have seen them when they saw each other.”

“I’m kind of glad I didn’t. Was it like immediate sex?”

“Nah, the opposite. Dirk greeted him and offered to go out and catch up.”

John snorted, “Well, I’m pretty sure that’s a good thing. At least they aren’t dating, otherwise that kind of reaction would be terrible.”

Dave snorted, “Yeah.” He took the seat from across John, “So why are you here? If memory serves me correctly, you only come here when you’re stressed.”

“Yeah, you remembered correctly. And if I remember correctly, the hot chocolate I ordered you should be to your pleasing.”

Dave cracked a small grin, “Probably. But, why did you come here? Want to talk.”

“Yeah actually. I’m pretty sure you’re cheating on me.”

The small grin disappeared quickly, blinking out of existence.

“You have no proof of that, why would I cheat on you?” His voice was level and didn’t falter, though his response was too quick and too expected. Anyone could tell he was lying.

“Dave, don’t get defensive.”

“Well I think anybody would be defensive if their boyfriend of five months just fuckign accused tehm of something they would never do. Why would you even fucking think that?”

“Because that girl I saw on skype.”

“Oh my god John. Terezi is a friend, she has a girlfriend, I’m not fucking her.” Dave’s voice wasn’t quite yelling, but it definitely was louder than usual.

John steeled himself. “Dave, don’t play dumb with me. I talked to Rose.”

He was silent for a moment, “What did she say?”

“I talked to her and she was surprised to learn we were still dating because you kept bringing home a girl and you were currently having sex with her.”

“Oh my god.” Dave placed his head on the table.

John sighed, “You know, what’s so terrible about this situation is that you’re helping her cheat on her girlfriend as well. That’s just no right man.”

Dave was silent for another minute. “God, I covered my tracks so well.”

John was getting a little upset. Honestly, that was all he had to say? No explanation, no sorry, no promise to stop or anything. It hit him, he was waiting for the breakup.

“Dave.” He reached a hand over and stroked the blondes hair. “I don’t see this as a relationship ender, I see this as an issue that we need to solve.”

“Don’t fucking touch me Egbert,” Dave reached a hand up and swatted away John’s darker one. No nickname, just Egbert. 

John huffed, “Don’t do this Dave, don’t get your panties in a twist and start getting mad at me just because you can’t handle what’s going on.”

“I’m not getting upset because I handle it. I’m getting upset because of you.”

A look of hurt flashed across his features before he narrowed his eyes, glaring at the blonde across from him, unknowingly masking his own emotions with anger. “How is this my fault? Was I the one who decided to go and date someone behind someone elses back and betray someone’s trust?”

“You just barely said that you weren’t upset, yet here you are getting your own panties in a twist.”

“I’m not upset in such a way that I would ever break up with you! But this whole spiel is certainly making me upset!” John was the first to raise his voice.

“So you’re going to break up with me because I called you out on your bullshit, real smooth John, real, fuckin smooth.”

“Oh my god! Just! Shut up!” He laced his fingers into his hair and tugged, trying to blow off the stream. He breathed deeply, “Listen asshole, I don’t want to break up with you, I love you, okay? Just because I don’t want to leave you doesn’t mean that I’m not upset.”

“You shouldn’t be upset, this is all your fault,” Dave crossed his arms over his chest, frowning slightly, and no doubt glaring under his shades.

Oh, how it would just be over is John could throw his chair at him. Instead he stood up, causing the metal lacy chair to fall onto the pavement and slamming his hands down on the table. “How in HELL is this my fault? Because I don’t see you that often? Well then come fucking live with me in my dorm for god’s sake. Because I’m not a girl? Then fucking dump me. Because you can’t dump me? Because then that would be your own damn fault.”

Dave stood up almost eerily calm, his chair sliding back, screeching against the pavement. He took a minute to compose his self, looking at his own hands on the mesh table before looking at John over his aviators, his red eyes furious and detached.

“Because you are you. That’s why this is your fault. You can’t do anything for me that I want, all we do is talk, I want sex. But you’re such a priss you can’t give me that and we share no interests. I would be fine with staying with you if we had sex, but noooooooo. It goes against your sexuality bullshit. Of course I would seek out sexual pleasure in someone I actually share common interests with.”

Dave expected John to do something, something drastic actually. Instead, he just stood up, straightening his hunched back and removing his hands from the table. He looked calm, calmer than Dave in his stoicness. Honestly, the only hint there was that he was upset was the knocked over chair and the red crisscross pattern on his palms.

WIthout any movement to give away his plan, he brought a hand across Dave’s face, hard. “You piece of shit.” He uttered in a low voice as he slapped him.

In reaction, Dave swung out his fist, hitting John square in his face.

Unexpectedly, John fell over backwards, collapsing on the pavement.

One of the bystanders stood up and gasped loudly causing Dave to look up. 

That wasn’t supposed to happen. Oh god, what was happening. 

He stood where he was, just looking at John’s body on the ground, he was still breathing, but. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He wasn’t supposed to slap him, and Dave most certainly wasn’t supposed to strike back. That wasn’t what was supposed to go down, he was supposed to break up with him and then he was going to break it with Terezi. That’s how it always went.

He just kept in the same position, even as an ambulance came and a man grabbed his arm.

Only the touch of someone else made him look up from the spot where John fell. Luckily there was no blood to mark such a spot, just memory.

He looked up only to find Mr. Egbert with a grim look on his face. “Come with me son.”

Dave nodded slightly, swallowing softly.

“You look like death yourself,” The older man remarked, his deep voice comforting to Dave somehow, like he could make everything right.

“Drink this,” He pressed a drink into Dave’s hand. the hot chocolate John ordered for him.

A warm and large hand was placed on Dave's shoulder, steering him to the car that was parked not so far away. Dave got in without a fight, still having not said anything.

James sighed as he got in the driver’s side and began driving away. “Drink your hot chocolate, it will calm you down.” 

There was a pause as Dave took a sip of the drink. It was half warm. And exactly the way he liked it.

After downing half of it, he shot a look towards the older man, as if signifying his continuation.

“Good. You always seem to get weird after dealing with John. Rather, when something bad happens and it turns out to be of your own cause. Which makes me wonder, why don’t you think ahead before you get angry?”

Dave bit his lip, not sure if he was supposed to answer or not. Even if he was, he wasn’t going to.

James let out a heavy breath, “Dave, you’re a good kid. But honestly, the moment you stepped into my house, I knew you were wrong for John. It made sense that it was a prank, but not that you continued there after. And I know John would never ever break up with you, but I think you should stop seeing him.

I don’t mean, that you should break up with him. No, that might hurt him, and you’ve done that already. But I just think you shouldn’t date him any more. Do you understand?” He turned to face Dave.

Dave nodded after a moment. Jerky movements that made a large, awkward arc with his chin.

James let out another breath. ‘We’re going to the hospital. I thought you might want to see him, because honestly, I doubt this is the last time you will see him in person. He might not wake up before you leave, and I don’t think it would be good to come over any more.”

Another silent pause came from Dave. He wasn’t just staying silent, no he was processing what was said. Not only was he just broken up with by his boyfriend's father, but John wasn’t going to wake up?

“Wake up?” The sound of his own voice puncturing the silence of the car. 

“Yes. He’s unconscious from the blow, and most likely asleep. Not like comatose or anything, just, asleep. though due to the potential concussion, he’s not allowed to be woken up. Three days, probably,. ANd you’re leaving before then.”

It wasn’t a question, it was a command.

Dave nodded, “Thank you sir.”

He got out of the car as they parked, and to his slight surprise so did Mr. Egbert. 

Dave stared at him a second before going into the hospital, figuring Mr. Egbert was just being a good father and was going to watch him as he visited his son.

Dave slowly walked down the hall, his hightops not making much of a sound other than the occasional squeak, whereas James’ clacked softly in his polished shoes.

He kept walking, the only sound was the older mans occasional instructions, leading him to the hospital room from behind.

Finally, they reached the room. Or rather the door which Dave stood in front of, his breath haltering a moment before reaching for the door knob.

One moment, two. He opened the door, not for himself, but because he could almost sense the man behind him growing frustration. 

Once again, Dave’s breath hitched as he saw John. Just, lying there, breathing softly, with a growing purple mark on his jaw. Dave’s fault.

Dave looked down, having seen enough. That was all he needed, after all, that was all that he was there for. Tears bubbled in his eyes, stinging softly as if protesting for the right to fall down his face and drip onto the pristine linoleum floor of the hospital.

He shook his head. At himself, at the tears, at John, everything. But mostly himself. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen!”

He yelled, not able to keep his voice calm or quiet any more.

That wasn’t supposed to happen either. He wasn’t supposed to cry, what had Dirk taught him over all the years. Besides, it was just a boy he had been dating for a little while. Nothing big. He broke up all the time, he was dumped all the time too. He wasn’t supposed to feel this way. No regret, that’s what his life was, no regret and pleasure. This was the opposite of that and he hated it. No. He hated himself for invoking the unwelcome and frankly intrusive emotions.

A hand on his shoulder was the thing that brought him back, the warmth that seemed through his shirt and into his soul.

James rubbed his back. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re upset, understandable. Let’s get you to your brother, okay?” He spoke empty words though his comfort was real. He reached across Dave’s shoulder and grabbed the handle, pushing Dave’s unmoved hand off it before pulling it shut, closing off the view Dave didn’t take advantage of.

Once again, the older, more responsible man lead him back to the car.

God, this was an awful day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gasps. It's not Friday? And I updated. Yeah, cause I got someone interested, so whatever.

Dave walked into the house after Dirk, his older brother disappearing into his room shortly after entering the house.

With a huff, he walked over to the couch, having spied familiar bleached hair poking up over the back. He fell over the top of the couch intentionally and landed ungracefully next to her. “Rose,” He greeted her, leaning on her.

“What?” came her near immediate response. She sounded cold and hard.

Dave was almost taken aback, retracting his weight from her side before responding. “Dude, why are you so pissy. You haven’t seen me for like, two days What gives?”

“Nothing, I’d rather not talk about it.” She seemed distant as she spoke, as if she were talking to him over a wall, but not at him, more like the space he occupied.

“Cool.” His mouth set in a firm line, one more of displeasure than was usually on his face.

“How was your trip?” She asked, lips still set in a disgruntled line rather than her slight, knowing smirk. It was clear she was trying to keep the plain small talk afloat.

“Nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Well, we can’t really talk about nothing. So if you say you don’t want to talk about it, then something happened. Something you are not okay with.”

Daves brows furrowed under his bangs, trying to get what Rose was playing at. He didn’t think her words were supposed to be nice, or mean, rather a fact, but they were also meant to be a jab. God, how could she have so many levels of emotion in her voice?

“It’s nothing that would concern you.”

“It’s John, isn’t it.”

He absently began chewing on the inside of his cheek.

She gave a slight nod, her bleached tips swishing against her cheek bones as she did so. "He called a couple days ago saying he needed to talk to you. I take it that you talked?”

“Yeah. We talked. He also told me you talked to hm. Which I feel was an invasion of privacy,”

“I’m soooo sorry that I told our mutual friend and your boyfriend that you were having sex with a female cop who has a girlfriend.” She grinned innocently, but her lilac eyes screamed anything but.

Dave released the inside of cheek from his teeth and clenched his teeth again, his brows furrowing again, though this time in anger and frustration rather than the latter and confusion.

“Oh my god Rose, just shut the fuck up. I have more important things to do, so unless you actually feel like being a good person and not the fucking hag you are and helping me, then go away. I don’t need your saggy ass hanging around me.” He walked to his room planning on just leaving it at that.

Rose had different ideas. She stood up as well and took a few steps. “Why are you leaving in such a haste Dave,” She pursed her dark glossy lips and cocked a hip. “You were the one who insisted on talking, and now you’re leaving in such a hurry, as if afraid of your own emotions.”

She said the last fragment, letting her words drip with sarcasm. Not the noteable sarcasm, but the ironic one, the one only Dave would notice.

His step faltered as Rose called out to him. “Listen, I have shit to do and things to fix, things that you broke.” He turned and glared at her through his shades before walking the rest of the way to his room. He stepped in and closed the door.

Her already narrow eyes narrowed further as she walked after him, calling out to be heard, not at all ready to let this go. “Yes. I was the one to break your relationship. I was the one who betrayed the trust of someone. I was the one who started fucking people because I was unsatisfied with my choices. I was the one who stole someone else's girlfriend. I was the one who lost that said girl friend because he was cheating on her as well.”

“Are you really fucking making this about my past,”

“Yes, because you can’t seem to learn. You hurt people, then you hurt others, and you keep going. And I honestly can’t fathom it, but apparently you can, because guess what you keep doing? Exactly that. Exactly what you did with John.”

The door to Dave’s room came flying open, and a book came flying out.  “THIS IS ABOUT JOHN YOU FUCKING IGNORANT BITCH. AND I'M THE ONE WITH MY HEAD UP MY ASS. YOU'RE BLIND SIGHTED BY YOUR OWN PATHETIC ISSUES, LIKE THE PAST. GOD JUST LET IT GO.”

Luckily the book came no where near hitting her.

He slammed the door again as she hurled it back, though with more accuracy than him.

“DON’T BE AN ASS DAVE. THIS ISN’T JUST ABOUT JOHN. YOU BROKE HIS HEART, BUT ITS CLEAR YOU DONT FEEL ANYTHING. YOU JUST KEEP ON DOING THIS, JUST OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. YOU JUST CANT HELP BUT HURT THE ONES THAT LOVE YOU CAN YOU!”

“ROSE! JUST FUCKING HELP ME OR GO AWAY.” Dave’s voice was straining as he yelled out again, though unwavering, just thin.

Rose breathed sharply in before picking up what was next to her, a vase full of white and pink flowers.

It crashed against the tightly shut door, shattering on impact.

Dave was silent. no sound other than Rose’s heavy breathing and the used plant water dripping with the glass was heard by her.

“YEAH! BECAUSE I ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO CLEAN UP YOUR SHIT. YOU'RE SUCH AN IDIOT THAT YOU CAN’T FATHOM CARRYING THE RESPONSIBILITY OF FIXING YOUR OWN FUCKING PROBLEM!” She picked up the nearest item and hurled it at the door. Still no word from Dave.

Frustrated she kept going, “IF THIS REALLY IS ABOUT JOHN, THEN IM SURE YOU’VE REALIZED THAT HE LOVED YOU. THAT HE HONESTLY LOVED YOU AND IT HONESTLY HURT HIM THAT YOU CHEATED ON HIM. HES PROBABLY ASKING HIMSELF WHY HE WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU, WHY A TAKEN WOMAN WAS BETTER THAN HIM, WHY HE COULDN’T GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANTED. YOU BETRAYED HIS TRUST AND HE THINKS ITS HIS OWN DAMN FAULT. HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK THAT FEELS? YOU FUCKING CUNT, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH YOU HURT HIM!”

Oh god she just wanted to fucking punch a wall and stab the door and just destroy everything, as everything inside her was destroyed.

“YOU HURT HIM SO BAD, AND ONCE AGAIN IT’S UP TO ME APPARENTLY TO FIX IT, BECAUSE IM THE ONLY ONE COMPETENT ENOUGH TO FIX YOUR PETTYS HITTY PROBLEMS THAT YOU BROUGHT UPON YOURSELF FOR NOT BEING GOOD ENOUGH. I HAVE MY OWN PROBLEMS. I HAVE MY OWN LIFE, BUT NOOOOO, IT ALWAYS HAS TO BE ABOUT YOU DAVE, DOESN’T IT. YOU PIECE OF SPOILED SHIT, YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING ON YOUR OWN, I’M ALWAYS THE ONE TO RESCUE YOU WITHOUT SO MUCH AS YOUR SO CALLED IRONIC HEAD NODS TO ACKNOWLEDGE ALL THAT I DO FOR YOUR MISERABLE ASS!”

There were no more things around for her to throw. In anger, she took off one of her shoes before throwing the black stiletto at the door. Almost comically, the heel struck home, making a hole in the already marred door, stick a minute before falling, detaching from the rest of the shoe as it hit the ground.

She let out a scream, no words this time, just a scream, a wailing scream that came from her throat.

Finally a door opened. Not Dave’s, Dirk’s.

He walked calming to Rose, seemingly unphased by her shrieks.

Wordlessly, he wrapped his arms around her shaking frame awkwardly.

It wasn’t till she stopped screaming that she noticed she was even shaking, or even being held.

She inhaled deeply and pressed her face to Dirks chest, it being exactly level with her face, and let out a soft sob.

He started rubbing her back slowly. “You need to chill. Not just you, Dave too.”

She nodded, tears still clinging to her lashed, unlike the the tears that made wet spots on Dirks shirt.

Sensing it was okay, he released her, taking a step back and patted her on the shoulder.

She let out a shuddering breath and tunred around, eyeing the mess of broken objects collected at the base of the door. THey had left their marks, among the other ones there from previous arguments.

She walked right past it, someone could take care of it for once. Sure it was selfish of her, but honestly, she felt like she could be selfish.

Keeping her head up, she walked to the bathroom to take a bath.

An hour later, Rose made her way back to the hall. Virtually the same as before, though the debris from her fit was gone.

She walked over and touched the scars on the door. But hey, better the lifeless wood than someone or something else. But why always Dave’s door, she didn’t know.

Rose sighed and leaned against the door, sliding down to rest on the floor with her back against the wood scarred from many things thrown at it, most of them in the past hour.

A soft thunk and sigh informed her that Dave was on the other side of the door.

A silents started, almost penetrating the post fight silence that was so common, the audible line of what was too far.

The silence that followed after was different. A heavy silence that clung to the ceiling and dripped slowly from it. The weight of who was going to apologize first if any one represented by the lack of sound.

Dave grunted from the other side. “Rose.”

Rose would have laughed in any other situation, “Dave.”

He didn’t reply. It was clear he was still expecting her to be the first to apologize, always her to be the one to clean up.

“Sorry,” He uttered out on the other side, his voice cracking, even with how soft his voice was.

Or not.

Rose’s eyes widened softly, not enough to be shock, but easing out of the glare she had been holding for a while.

She let out a heavy breath, hoping to expel her emotions too. Why was it so damn hard? She was an adult, not some ignorant and biased teenager who thought no one understood.

“Dave, I’m sorry too. I snapped,and I shouldn’t have said the things I did. It’s not right.”

The door opened from behind her, almost causing her to topple backwards She caught herself though.

She got up from the floor and walked into the dark room, knowing a silent, passive invitation when she got one.

Softly, she tread into the room, waiting for Dave to close the door before sitting down on the bed.

It gave a soft groan as she sat down, and another one as it dipped under Dave's weight when he joined her.

He didn't sit close to her at all, and she didn't mind. It was to be expected.

She held her breath for a minute before blowing it out through pursed lips. Slowly, she turned to him, twirly a wet lock of hair in her fingers.

He was shadeless and looking at his hands, tears silently dripping out of his read rimmed red eyes on his palms in his lap.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything I said. I just-" she paused, unsure of her words for once. There was no justifying what she did, yet she had to.

She tried again, "The reason I'm so pissy is because of Kanaya. She cheated on me, or I think she did. With the cop's girlfriend. So, seeing as you just got back from talking with John and you were the one who felt like the victim, it just made me so mad. It still does honestly. I don't see how Someone can be hurt from betraying some else. So I kind of wanted to make you feel bad for feeling like you were the one hurt, and I also just screamed out my feelings at Kanaya..." she trailed off, tearing her gaze away from him to her own hands.

He nodded slightly, "Yu should talk to her rather than throwing things at my door." his voice was soft.

Rose let out a short, chocked laugh. "We don't really talk a whole lot about our emotions."

Dave nodded again, just the bare minimum of moving his head.

With his silence filling in for his side of the conversation, rose began to speak again, "You know, I've seen you break up with or cheat on a lot of people. Never before have you gotten so upset, and never before have you cried over it,"

"I didn't break up with John. And he didn't break up with me. His dad did. John wanted to stay together, and make things work, even after I told him it was his fault for not having an active sex drive.

And what you said. I betrayed his trust, and possibly made him think he wasn't good enough because." he faltered. "Because I don't know why."

"He truly loved me, and I think I loved him. And he wanted ,to fix me but I knocked him out. Rose, he's in the hospital. And his dad broke us up and he's never going to love me again,"

As he spoke, his words sped up as he got more frantic, tears began falling quicker,rolling off his face in fat droplets.

Rose moved over despite the old mattress' squeaky protest, and put an arm around him and giving him a light squeeze. "Honey. Don't stress about it. I told you, what I said has oohing to do with you and John, I was just upset. If John wants to make it work, then I'm damn sure it will work, just as long as you want it to and work for it as well. Just work together and talk and it'll workout, okay?"

"Take your own advice and I'll take it too." he brought a hand up to wipe at his eyes, determined to stop crying.

Rose sighed, "Well, if I'm going to follow my advice, then I feel I have tout this out there. Breaking up is always a valid solution."

Dave nodded, "Mr. Egbert seems to think so."

"Mr. Egbert is rather wise, don't you think?"

Dave nodded again before groaning. "Too right, and John is too naïve."

It was Rose's turn to nod. "Everyone has faults, but it's not a matter of fixing them, it's a matter of finding someone to compliment them."

"Isn't that a quote from a famous person."

"Yeah, me."

That got a pity laugh from Dave, sniffling as he did so. 

"Life's hard when there's no one, but we have eachother, yeah, we're going to be alright." She leaned up an kissed his temple, leaving a faded, sloppy black mark. "Love you Dave. No hetero"

Dave laughed again, this time slightly more sincere. "You too. No faux incest."

Rose swatted at his arm, "Way to ruin my joke."

"Honey, sorry to break it to you, but it was ruined before you said it."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> if there are typos in speech its probably intentional, dont you dare give me shit about that.

John clicked the skype icon again, currently the fifth time in the past hour. It wasn’t like he was incessantly trying to skype call Dave, he allotted small breaks to make sure he wasn’t busy. But come on, it clearly showed Dave was on. 

Again it was declined.

With a soft groan, John picked up his phone and clicked on one of the first listings.

Calling Dave was always an option, but John much preferred skype. Because despite what Dave seemed to insist on with his poorly constructed mask, facial expressions were important. Even the twitch of the unchanging straight line could mean something completely different that without. Especially with the deadpan humour that was so common between Striders, and honestly was rubbing off on John.

The dial tone rang a couple of times, but finally, he answered. 

“Hello?”

Dave’s voice brought a smile to his face. “Hey asshole,” He greeted, the smile still on his face.

There was a long pause before there was anything in return, making John grow uneasy in the silence that wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Hi John,” 

That wasn’t Dave’s voice. Rose.

“Oh, hey, is there some reason that DAve can’t talk to me? Like, some intense thing he’s doing and I can’t know? In which case, why did he even pick up the phone?”

He intended on coming off as light and jokey, but the upsetness he was feeling made its way into his words, making him sound accusing or grumpy.

“Mmm,” At least she wasn’t silent on the other side of the line, just thinking. “Can I tell him?”

“I will kill you Lalonde.” Dave’s voice, just muffled and off screen.

It seemed everything recently was off screen while he was patiently waiting for them to come back into view, which they never did.

Rose chuckled, interrupting his thoughts, “Yeah. So John, the reason why Dave answered is because he erased your contact from his phone.”

John’s chest tightened. It was such a simple act, but it meant so much. the implications Dave was so fond of were written all over that.

“Oh,” He spoke simply. Or rather, expressed. He hadn’t intended it.

“Dave’s curious as to why the hell, as he puts it, you’re trying so hard to get in contact with him.”

“Because he’s my boyfriend and he left my state when I was in the hospital right after we had a fight about a conflict not yet resolved. But I suppose that we probably won't be talking about our fucked up and breaking relationship seeing as Dave is already trying to avoid me. And the fact that he erased my contact while I’m here sitting on my bed with a carton of ice cream and trying to call him for the past hour only to talk to his fake sister really does solidify the fact that we might as well already have been broken up, and I fulfilled the overly attached and in denial ex. You happy Rose?”

HIs voice grew progressively upset, though he never yelled. His father was around, and he undoubtedly would come in and tell him not to contact Dave.

“John, I assure you I am not happy, I haven't been so since I was five years old.” She sounded calm, and even managed to slip a monotonous joke in there. At least, John assumed that was a joke.

She continued before he could comment on it, “Well, before we dive head first into the shit pool that is called talking about emotions and issues revolving around relationships, I must ask of you, how are you feeling. It is to my understanding that you were in the hospital.”

“Yeah, hit my head. No concusion, I was just unconcious and then my narcolepsy took over and I kinda stayed asleep for a couple of days. It felt nice, like I slept away my stress, but also painfull, because I didn’t move so I got a huge kink in my neck, plus, using your muscles you havent used after a couple days always is fun.”

“Hmm, Always, this has happened before.”

“Yeah. Only when I’m under psychological and physical stress. I could have it worse, Jane sleeps if she has mental stress, and Jade sleeps because, because.”

“Yeah, I recalled she slept quite a lot.”

John nodded, “Yeah, she’s always sleeping, until she gets depressed, then she doesn’t, like she stored the sleep from before and hey.” He stopped in the middle of his sentence, finally realizing what was going on. “You’re derailing me.”

“Me, derail you?” He could almost hear the smirk in her voice, “I assure you, I would never try to stop you from talking about your issues with a certain albino boy, who seems to be the complete opposite of you in every way, and should in fact remain you ex.”

“Rose!” He shouted to get her attention, sensing she would go on a lot longer if he allowed it.

“My John, no need to shout, I’m hanging on every word.”

James popped his head in, “Son, why are you yelling?”

John sighed and pulled the phone away from his ear, “I’m calling Rose, and she went on a tangent that I didn’t want to hear,” He spoke louder at the last phrase, shifting his gaze to the phone, glaring at it out of his peripheral vision.

James nodded, “Okay. Feeling any better?”

“Yeah, painkillers really took the pain out.”

He nodded again, “Just tell me if it makes you drowsy or out of it, kay?”

It was John’s turn to nod. “Kay.” ‘I’m not five years old’ he added mentally. Sure his dad was just concerned, but honestly, it was slightly annoying when he was trying to talk to someone.

With that, James ducked his head back out, closing the door as he left.

John let out a small sighe before putting his phone back to his ear. “You still there?”

“Yes. And I’d like to take a moment to state that I truly am pleased with your father, he’s a nice man, always having your best interest at heart.”

 

“Yeah, except when he broke up with my boyfriend for me while I was hospitalized.”

“Well,” She sounded a little awkward, “You do know why you were hospitalized, right?”

“Yeah, I didn’t hit my head that hard. And my dad made sure to fill me in. I got punched, and I fainted, not really a big deal.”

“Don’t say it isn’t a big deal. It concerns people, even if it doesn’t do so to you. Honestly, I find it kind of selfish to think that just because you don’t care, it automatically makes it a small thing.”

He let out breath of annoyance. “Okay, big deal Whatever. Just answer my question. Why is Dave avoiding me.”

There was a pause. Something a little unusual for Rose. “Because he’s vulnerable. And for what appears to be the first time, he’s feeling the consequences of a relationship, so honestly, that doesn’t leave him just vulnerable, it leaves him almost unable to cope. So both he and I agreed that his avoiding you would be the best.”

“So in other words, I’m the problem?”

“Not per say,” She haltered, giving John an opportunity to jump in.

“Not per say my ass. When it boils down to cold hard fact, both of you believe that I would aggravate and hurt him more because hes feeling the whiplash of his actions. I am the catalyst to his own damn explosion. This is a fucking oxymoron, it’s his actions but up to me to make it worse if I talk to him for one goddamn second and manage to get a word past hey in there.”

“No, John. Stop, you’re only going to make yourself more angry with your own lies. None of what you said was true. It’s his fault for feeling the way he does, technically speaking, He can’t control his emotions, but they are a byproduct of something he chose to do.”

She cleared her throat, noticing she got a bit off track, “I mean to say, talking to you would only fuel his emotions that came from his actions. And heaven knows he can barely handle it right now.”

John groaned and flopped back, planning on just plopping onto his pillows, but hit his head on the wall again. “Ow!” He exclaimed as his sight got a bit fuzzy. That wasn’t good. 

“John?”

Well at least he didn’t hang up on rose. He sat back up slowly, the fuzziness only getting worse. As he was upright, black webs started forming at the corner of his eyes.

“Rose, listen to me. Tell Dave I’m not angry.”

“Oh contraire, you sound pretty damn angry to me.”

“That’s because-” he raised his voice slightly then shut up. That was not helping. 

“Rose.” He took a breath and started again, “I have like, some time before I pass out, listen. I’m not mad at Dave. I’m mad at what he did, and I’m mad I can’t talk to him, and I’m mad that I’m probably not going to remember this, and I’m mad just period. I’m mad that im stuck at home with my dad and i’m mad that i feel this is my fault, and i’m mad that i can't blame dave but i cant because i love him. i'm notm ad and i want tyou to tell him i still love him even if he doesnt love me and if it cant work out ill move one, not mad at him.”

“John-” she started, only to be cut off. 

“Lalonde, I said just listen. Even if it doesn make sense, just repeat it t dave. kay? cause i dont how else to say it. bye.”

He hung up the phone, or at least he thought he did. The phone was phuzzy and he honestly didn’t know. 

“Dad!” He called out and he felt the world's swaying get worse, or maybe that was him. 

A faint call of “what” was the last thing he heard. Maybe his dad was downstairs in the kitchen, maybe he was in the hall listening to him. He didn’t know.

What he did now was the black webs were getting further and

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kay, so, the passing out is not expected, i honestly expected a long conversation but then im like, comedy, then im like, wait, drama.
> 
> so the way i wrote it is he way i experience it. fuzzy and light headed, you know your going down but your still mostly there, then jkind of a delusion, you just say whats on your mind and you dont remember it but everyone says they had no idea what you were saying at it was slurred, then, it gets blacker and blacker
> 
> teh next thing you know, some random guy at disney land is glaring at your boyfriend and picking you up as you struggle to breath. or you're at a basket ball game and no one knows what the hell is going on, you land awkwardly in teh bleachers after knocking over three clarinets and start crying because you cant breath. 
> 
> passingout is weird.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the first part is sorta filler, then we get empotions out of the way, then fuckin drama in five words.

John woke up all at once, leaving some of his mental capacity behind as he did so.

The first thing he noticed was something cold under his head. Slowly he lifted his head up, aware that it felt like his brains were sloshing around as he did so, and grabbed whatever was under his head aside from the pillow.

An ice pack.

Must have hit his head, he concluded before getting up slowly. He was conscious, that was good, but a little put off and disoriented.

He placed a hand on the wall to stabilize himself once he was actually on his feet. with that, he grabbed the half melted ice pack and started making his way downstairs where some heated conversation was going on. Obviously they were trying to refrain from yelling.

He stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked at the scene in front of him, Jane, who was obviously pissed if her shaking fists were anything to go by, and… his father?

His father must have been pissed too, his sleeves were at his elbows and he was smoking, something he didn’t do often because of his health.

“Dad, what’s going on.”

Jane’s head whipped around in an instant, her grimace turning softer as she saw John. “Oh, no. This is Jared, he is not your father, your uncle rather.”

The imposter dad looked offended, “Jane, both of us know I am John’s father. His actual one.”

“That’s not what you said fifteen years ago when you took me away and not John!” Jane turned around, the man distracting her from John.

“Don’t bring up crap from fifteen years ago.”

“You seem to be completely fine with it.”

“That’s different.”

“Why, because you think the fact that you ‘rescued’ me from my family and social life is more important that my brother?”

“You know I only took you in for the good of the company.”

“So you’re admitting that you never really wanted me.”

“No, I wanted you.”

“Yes, that’s why I was left in foster care for four years while you had another daughter with your wife.”

“Jane, my not knowing about you until my brother contacted me about our mother and the company has nothing to do with that.”

“Fine, even if it doesn’t, that doesn’t mean you didn’t take me in until it landed you the crocker corp, which by the way, I want back.”

“You got it wrong, we wanted to help you get the company.”

“Yeah, that’s why your wife is running it and not me, who spent eight years in the most exclusive colleges preparing to get it at eighteen even though I’m thirty now.”

“I know how old you are -”

“I didn’t think so, because you don’t even know my birthday.”

“Don’t interrupt me young lady.”

“Young lady? As if, I have children, I’m married, I could go through menopause tomorrow.”

He pulled a disgusted face, “You’re not that old.”

“Old compared to eighteen when I should have gotten my damn company.”

“And you would have gotten it, there are just complications you couldn’t understand.”

“Complications I couldn’t understand? Ha! Tell that to my various degrees.”

Jared ran a hand through his hair, “Some things you can’t learn in college. You have to learn in real life, in society. And heaven knows you don’t know any of that considering you never left your room.”

“Huh! Maybe I would understand things if I had a social life and say, went to high school with lifelong friends.” She put her hands over her eyes under her red rimmed glasses and groaned before pulling her elegant hands down, stretching out her cheek and under eye skin. 

“Jared-”

“Dad” He corrected.

“Listen. I don’t give a damn hoot about the conditions. Bottom line being I was promised a company, and by legal document, I should have it. I’m giving you till the end of the month to sign over documents and the company and all that to me before I get lawyers involved in this.”

He groaned, “Why can’t you talk to Cadence about this?”

“Because I did last week and do you know what she said? She said I should be satisfied with my managing a branch and being the face, that asking for any more would be selfish seeing as I already had enough money.”

“Well you do have enough money, and one of our jets.”

“Our jets? You mean my jet, the one I was promised because of my damn heritage, not stealing some poor confused girl and saying because she is yours you get crocker rights and because you were legally a child of someone for six months you do as well.”

“Well it’s not my fault that families are complex and they abide by heritage laws.”

“That wasn’t fucking family. Get out of my house. No, I should say get out of my father’s house. The father who raised and loved me.”

Jared grumbled something before leaving. 

“One week!” Jane called after him before turning to John, “Morning sunshine.”

It was amazing how she could change exteriors in matter of seconds.

The door slammed and John nearly jumped. 

“Chill,” Jane placed a hand on his shoulder, “How do you feel.”

John shrugged, “Like, how.”

“Well, how do you feel after passing out, physically.”

“Still a little dizzy.”

She nodded. “Dad took you to the emergency room last night, or afternoon technically. They said that you probably didn’t have a concussions seeing as you only hit your head on a wall and were talking after that. But, I’m supposed to watch you.”

“Where’s dad?”

“Work. He could only get a couple days off, three of which you spent in the hospital and one he spent making sure you were okay. Obviously, you weren’t if you fell over and hit your head.”

“I didn’t just like, fall over and hit my head, I was talking to someone and thought I was closer to the foot and could lie down.”

She winced, “Worst kind of pain. Regardless, you managed to hit the same spot as you did when you were unconscious the last time.”

He nodded. 

“I’m going to make coffee, and then we can talk, you look like you need it.”

He nodded again, “Yeah.” 

She walked into the kitchen and he followed after her like a small duck. 

“Jane. Why were you arguing with our biological father?”

She paused, “He’s kind of not a good person. Like, he thinks he’s doing the right thing, and he makes mistakes like everyone, and he loves his family. But in all honesty, he’s not a good person for business. He doesn’t understand how much information is needed to have or to give in order for things to work out, and sometimes he’ll try to weasel things.

I guess, he;s just a bad businessman. But, every time I talk to him, I feel like he’s a bad man. Like, he took me away from you and dad not to mention Dirk and Roxy and I barely got to know anyone in my college years and I still haven't gotten my company. Plus, he has a family. And we’re not part of it until it benefits him. We are the secret family that his wife isn’t supposed to know about.”

She sighed, “I hate him, even though he wants me to love him and I hate that.”

John leaned on her shoulder, “Okay, well I’ll try not to get involved.”

She nodded, “Good idea.”

A couple of beats of silence passed before she spoke again, “So, you were talking to someone before you went out like a light. Did they cause you a lot of stress? You were asleep nearly twenty four hours.”

He nodded, “Huh. I strangely don’t have to pee,”

She giggled, “That’s the first thing you think of.”

“Well yeah.”

She let out another giggle, making it seem impossible that this was the girl yelling at a faux father moments ago.

“Okay, put your jokester side away, as hard as that may be for you, I want to know what happened for you to get upset.”

John’s own smile died away. Apparently putting away the prankster in him wasn’t that hard once he recalled his problems. 

“Dave.”

Jane looked at him quizzically out of the corner of her eye. “Huh. I thought you were getting on swelly with him.”

“Was.”

“Aw, sweety, bad break up?”

He sighed, fed up with one word answers. He didn’t want to talk per se, but even saying one word responses, as vague and common place as the words were, they were making him think. Besides, this was Jane, someone who would understand.

“No. Dad broke up with him for me while I was in the hospital because he punched me and I hit my head and I was under a lot of stress because he had been cheating on me in Texas with the female cop that arrested you for child abuse, or at least I think it’s the same one, because I didn’t really want to have sex or something, but I’m over that, I’m just frustrated because he thinks I want to break up with him because he was a douche nozzle who cheated on me with a female cop who already has a girlfriend, and is emotionally hurt and thinks I’ll make it worse because I have every right to be mad and disgusted but I’m not.”

It took Jane a moment to process it. “You talk fast, you sure you need coffee,”

John removed his head from her shoulder and half glared at her. “This is serious,”

She only reached over and ruffled his hair. “I know, I didn’t mean to invalidate your experience or your emotion, I wanted to make a joke, sorry.”

He sighed, “It’s fine. I’m just stressed.”

“Aren’t we all.”

He sighed, “Yeah, but this is more personal than business affairs and stuff, it’s like, emotional stress.”

“I’m not old enough to not understand the complexities of dating.”

“Says the married woman.”

“How do you think I got married?”

He resigned, “Fine. But like, It’s hard to convey, and harder to deal with. And it seems to be worse for Dave who apparently is experiencing this for the first time.”

She nodded, “Well then of course he’s going to be a big baby about this whole ordeal.”

“But it’s his own damn fault!”

“I know.” She paused to finish up the pot of coffee, “But. Think. The first time you did something, it was hard. The second time not so much. Every Time you do that one thing, it gets easier, especially if you have someone who has experienced it helping you out. In this case,lets say the thing you are doing is emotions, you’re used to it, but it’s still a little taxing and you sometimes need others’ advice.

But Dave, assuming he took the strider oath of stoicism, this is his first time dealing with something like this. So you can either be mad because it’s his fault- which it probably is- or you can try to help him and point out kindly what he's doing wrong and why he got into this position.”

John furrowed his brows, not in confusion, more like anger and disappointment.

“God. That’s nearly everyone's response. Like, he’s a baby who isn’t responsible for his own fucking actions and I have to endure it. No!” He accented it with a little stomp of the foot, “He fucking cheated on me. He decided I wasn’t good enough and that he needed somebody else but kept me around because he thought I was useful other ways or delicate or some shit. It’s his damn fault that we’re feeling like this, and its especially his fault if this is the only time he’s feeling pain.

But no, I’m expected to just fucking sit by and wait for him to feel better before I can even feel hurt myself! When will I be allowed to hurt? Wait, I forgot. Never, because apparently it would offend Dave!”

“Sweety.” She placed a hand on his cheek and wiped away the tears that he didn’t know were there with her thumb. “I’m not saying you can’t feel, though I understand If you think I am. I just mean, don’t take Dave’s little fit personally. His own faults shouldn’t hold you back. You can make it worse or better, and I would suggest the latter.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about Dave any more.”

She pulled him into a hug. “Striders are hard to deal with. They suck, and honestly, you have every right to be super upset. You’ve been so patient, and it sounds like you’ve been a better boyfriend than he deserves with what he’s done. And there is only so much a human can take. I’m so proud of you for being strong this far, and you deserve a break.”

He nodded softly and managed to nestle in the crook of her neck, despite his being taller than her.

Honestly, he didn’t know if she was just saying it to comfort him, or what, but it helped. It could be true to him if he wanted.

“Jane?” He spoke in a soft voice after being held a couple minutes.

“Yeah?” 

“I don’t think I love Dave.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dave doesnt understand anything, hes just a little baby. 
> 
> also, switched janes pronouns halfway through because it bugged me, and no, i wont go and change them in other works and past chapters, whatever.

Dave had his head in the lap of Rose as she ran her fingers through his hair subconsciously. He knew it was all subconscious, and honestly, that’s one reason why he liked it. She was doing his bidding without even thinking of it.

“Soooo.” He began. 

“Dave, hush, I’m watching football.”

Dave glanced at the screen. It was not football. It was fucking soccer. “That’s soccer your pretentious ass hole.”

“Well, they have a ball and they are touching it with feet.”

“God, you make it sound like a fetish.”

“Well, as far as my understanding goes, most sports are indeed fetishtic.”

He groaned, “Whatever.”

Rose snickered and kept her silence until a commercial popped up. “Okay, my sweaty men playing football are on a break. Pray tell me, what do you want?”

“So you talked to John the other day, right?”

“I did, then it is to my understanding he passed out and went back to the hospital.”

Dave winced slightly. “Oh.” That was his fault. Not only did he send him to the fucking hospital, but repeatedly. “Did, did he say anything about me?”

“Of course. He called to get in contact with you, and got me instead. Of course he would have said something.”

“Kay.” He paused, “What did he say?”

“Dave, don’t you think you’re being an over attached ex?”

“Yes. Now tell me.”

“I don’t think it would help you.”

“Rose. I know he said something, and I know you said something about me. I think I have the right to know what he said about me.”

Rose sighed and stopped her hand as if she just realized what she was doing. “well, let’s see. He said he was upset that nobody was paying attention to his feelings and that you were being a baby for not talking to him, that you should in fact feel this way.”

“I know,” He turned onto his side and buried his face into her stomach. 

Rose rolled her eyes, “He also said he loved you.”

Dave turned his head and looked up at Rose quizzically. “He didn’t.” He spoke as if it were a statement.

“He did. I believe he said something along the line of, ‘I hate a lot of things, including what Dave did and what he’s are doing, and that everyone is taking Dave’s side, but I love him.’” She shrugged, “I don’t think he’s ever been opposed to you, even when I talked to him before you flew out there. He wants to work things out, and I think you should work through things out too.”

Dave turned back into Rose’s stomach. “I don’t want to. It’ll only make me feel worse.”

Once again, Rose rolled her eyes. “Well then you deserve to feel bad. I’m glad you’re feeling remorse for your wrongdoings, and I understand it’s hard considering you’re a huge baby, but you need to face the music.”

“I don’t want to.” He protested.

“I don’t care. You have this potential to have a great relationship with someone who cares about you and is trying their damn hardest to love you after you hurt them, and you’re going to sit here and feel sorry for yourself.”

“Yeah. I’m going to feel sorry for myself. I don’t understand John and I don’t understand me. Just let me cope.”

“I will let you cope. However, what you are doing isn’t really coping. You've had your down time, now it’s time to start fixing things.”

He let out a whimper. Not because he was whimpering, but maybe Rose would be nicer if she pitied him. “I don wanna.”

“Baby.” She commented before ignoring him altogether, soccer was back on.

Dave didn’t move, knowing after a couple minutes, she would run her fingers through his hair again. Sure enough, moments later, it started up again.

Roxy sat down next to him. “Hey nerds.”

Rose gave a slight nod, but ignored her. 

“Roxy, what are you doing here?” His words were slightly muffled as he put his head back down after lifting it to look at her.

The albino girl shrugged, “I was touring the east coast trying to get contracts. Then talked with one of my past contractors to extend themselves. They wouldn’t. And now I’m flying back home, but stopped here for some down time because Callie says that Jane is cagey.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, buisness stuff, we’re trying to get another kid, stuff she stresses about.”

Dave sighed, “I wish I had a wife and kids.”

Rose rolled her eyes and picked up the remote and pausing her show. “No you don’t Dave. You’re being stupid. Go take a shower and pack, we’re going with Roxy on her flight.”

“You could pause your damn show this whole time?”

“Yes. It’s a pre recording of the big game on Saturday.”

“You ignored me because of soccer?”

“You didn’t ask.” She pointed out. 

“Children, stop arguing over football.” Roxy stepped in.

Dave rolled onto his back and stuck his tongue out at her before stretching out his legs and placing them over her lap.

Rose stood up, causing Dave to fall off the couch. 

“Dave, I said go take a shower. We’re going on a plane, and you being gross isn’t going to help the situation.”

He groaned, “How are we even going to get on a plane? Dirk’s not going to give you any money, and you're a college student, you don’t have any.”

Roxy shrugged, “I can pay. I like travelling with you guys.”

Rose smiled knowingly and looked at Dave who was still on the floor. “Go take a shower and pack.”

He sighed and got up off the floor, not because he wanted to. But because it was easier than fighting with Rose.

 

A couple hours, four hours and thirty seven minutes to be exact, Dave was standing in the same spot as he was on Thanksgiving. It was about the same too. OVer casst, slightly chilly, with dead grass crunching under foot as he stepped out of the taxi and stood on the patch before the side walk. 

Still quaint, still oddly Egbert enough, though not John esque. 

Oh god, he was thinking of this all way too romantic. It was a house, in the suburbs in Washington. That happened to house John Egbert.

Rose grabbed the overnight bags out of the car and slung them onto her shoulder. “Why are you just standing here, come get your bag or I’m taking your underwear and selling it.”

He flipped her off, “You ain’t getting shit for selling undies I spilled coke on.” 

He didn’t turn around to help her, he walked up to the door instead. 

He knocked on the door and waited, though he didn’t have to wait long. Moments after he knocked, foot steps sounded and grew louder marginally as the person drew closer to the door. 

It was John, thank goodness. 

A small, dopey grin worked its way onto Dave’s face, just relieved it wasn’t James. How do you even talk to someone after they break up with you for their son? He was slightly disappointed in himself for not even thinking that facing him was a very real possibility.

“Hey babe.” He greeted, nonchalantly. Of course there were a million things he wanted to say, but, that could wait till the cool status was met with the appropriate amount of monosyllabic words.

“Ass hole.” John responded, which, in case you were keeping track, is cool due to the matched number of monosyllabic words used to open to a slew of feelings and innumerable things to say.

Though, the amount of cool John showed didn’t matter. Because no matter how cool he as, it burned when he slapped Dave. 

The door slammed shut fast, but Dave remained still.

Well that certainly wasn’t the reaction he was expecting. Hell, even if he did expect it, that’s not generally the expression one gets if they showed up at someone’s house and they claimed to still love them.

Dave’s shocked face settled into something more angry. Either John or Rose lied. 

“Ass hole.” He called back, or rather. muttered to himself. HE crossed his arms and made his way back to the car. 

Except, the taxi was gone, and in its stead stood Roxy and Rose who was riffling through Dave’s bag, presumably for underwear to sell.

“I want to go home.” He stood a good couple of feet in front of them, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Why? We just got here.” Roxy near pouted.

“I just want to go home.”

Rose looked up, halting her riffling. “Dave. we’re going to talk to John and get this sorted out. Why did you have to get cold feet?”

“No. He called me an ass hole and slapped me before closing the door on my face.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Roxy took him in her arms and kissed his head, “In his defence, you kinda are an ass hole sometimes.”

He pushed her off him, “Not the time. Take me back home or I will hitch hike my way back and some weird Washington man may take me somewhere else.”

“Sounds terrible, why not stay here with us instead?” Rose grabbed his wrist and started walking towards the door.

This time, Jane answered it. The first thing she did was peck Roxy on the cheek. “Hey, how was your trip?”

“Uneventful. Got contracts, got children, came here,” Roxy smiled as she walked in, the others following in after her.

“So I see,” Jane’s focus went straight to Dave. “Not to be a wet towel or anything, but I’m pretty sure that that fact was what sent John upstairs.”

Dave’s slight frown turned into a scowl. 

“Would you like a cookie?” Jane picked up a platter that was on the coffee table and offered it. 

Rose took one.

“Still a little motion sick,” Roxy shrugged, declining the cookies as they were offered.

“I imagine. With all that flying and taxis, must be terrible.”

“Yeah. But gotta do what I gotta do for contracts.”

“Contracts are useless. You should start your own company. They’re much more practical in such a world.”

“Too much work, besides I'd rather not compete with the people who potentially hire me.”

“Why is John mad?” Dave blurted out. Not that he wanted to talk about relationships or interrupt the two, but honestly it was eating away at him. John was supposed to love him.

Jane bit their lip. “Well. He’s a little uncomfortable right now. I’m not sure how well I can explain it, or if I’m even allowed to. You can go talk to him, no doubt he’s in his room. But I would suggest being calm. I know you’re upset, but, we can’t really have him passing out again and hitting his head or anything.”

Dave glared. Rose seemed fine with giving away his personal reason when he wasn’t being the least bit harmful to Egbert, but suddenly when it’s John, he needs his privacy.

Dave grabbed a cookie and went upstairs before walking into Johns bedroom, no knocking. 

John, of course, was sitting there, but face down on the bed, sniffling.

For some reason, that seemed really out of character to Dave. He didn’t know what he expected, maybe him sitting at his desk and tapping is finger tips together evilly, staring at the door, waiting for Dave to walk in. Something. Not him being upset. Not like this.

“Jane.” John’s words were muffled. 

Shit. He thought he was Jane.

“You know how I said I don’t love Dave? I think I do. But, I don’t want to. I hate that I love him. I hate everything about him, I hate what he did and the way he acts and the way he just fucking showed up without warning and didn't act sorry. But I can’t hate him. Why can’t I fucking hate him?”

Dave sat down on the bed, not sure what to say. All the words and thoughts he had before seemed to have left. 

“Because I’m awesome?” He spoke at last. 

John’s shoulders tensed before he kicked Dave. “Douchnozzle, get the fuck out.’

“No.” He ignored the kick, not back compared to what he’s experience. 

Dave sighed then laid down, resting his torso over the back of John’s legs. “John. I’m sorry. I have a million things to say, but I’m not that great at forming words to express myself. So, before I leave this room, and not you, I want to say I’m sorry. And I want you to love me,” He caught himself. “No. I want to be good enough for you to love me. And I’m sorry I’m not.”

He waited for a response. 

“We’ll talk later. Right now I’m busy.” Came the response. 

Dave smiled slightly. It wasn’t a no.

“John!” Jane’s voice sounded from downstairs, “Dad’s home, I’m leaving, send your little friend down, he’s spending the night with me.”

Still smiling, Dave stood up. Of course he would have like to spend the night with John, but considering they were technically broken up and still in a fight, it didn’t seem like a good idea.

On his way downstairs, he passed Mr Egbert, who gave him a-

Dave couldn’t place it. Just a look.

He looked away, unable to bare the gaze. 

“I’ll be back tomorrow, same time.” Jane promised before grabbing their keys. “love you,” THey smiled at their father before exiting the house, Roxy and Rose following. 

Dave, however, faltered a moment before following. They would be back tomorrow, and he could talk to John. He had all night to figure out what the hell he was going to say.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got editor. Wonk.

Well, the Crocker house was pretty fun. Technically it was the Crocker Lalonde English household, but it really seemed like Jane was the main owner of the house once Dave stepped inside.

The entry way smelt like vanilla, almost like inumerous baked treats, but there were too many to smell, so it just smelled like vanilla. 

“Mooommmmmy!” THe excited calls of Sebastian were the second most noticeable thing. THe next, of course, was the small blonde child running up and hugging Jane. 

They just smiled and ruffled his already messy hair. “Hey. Were you good while I was gone?”

He grinned his gap toothed smile, “Yeah! I wanted to make cookies for you, but Callie said that wasn’t a good idea because I couldn’t use the stove and she didn’t like baking. So instead we painted. And I painted,” He paused, “I don’t know what I painted but it looks cool. And Calliope was painting something really cool. its not finished and she's still working on it.”

Jane nodded again, “Did you clean your room like I asked?”

The kid groaned, “Noo. But I don’t like cleaning, and expecially because my arm hurts.”

Dave looked at the messy kid again and noticed, there indeed was a blue cast on his arm.

“But you could paint just fine,” they pointed out.

Sebastian groaned, “I don’t want to.”

They rolled their startling blue eyes, “Go on.” they turned him around and pointed him towards the hallway. He once again groaned but went off, much slower than he came.

Roxy gave a small laugh, “How do you control him so well?”

“The same way you can get through to Dirk.”

Roxy giggled again. “I’m off to find Callie, I have a hunch she’s in the studio.”

“Yep. And remember, the studio has a lot of open paints and delicate things, nothing too rough, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Besides, I’m saving the rough stuff for later. You up for it, or will you ref for us?”

They shrugged, “Depends how rough.”

“We’ll see,” Roxy winked before going off down the same hall way

Rose chuckled, breaking the silence Roxy had left between the three of them. “So, I suppose there will be an intense greeting?” 

Jane shrugged, “Probably, those two are inseparable.”

“More so than you and either of them?”

Once again, they shrugged, “I get what you’re implying, but I assure you. There’s nothing to worry about. That’s how our relationship works. Callie and Roxy are more the inseparable PDA in the park type, Roxy and I are the married for years, and Callie and I are like newlyweds. I love both of them, but let me be honest, Roxy is the one who loves us both equally more than either of us. And it works out.”

Rose nodded, but more for encouragement of the talking rather than understanding “Do you feel like you’re cheated on?”

“No. That’s not how polyamory works. The love is equally distributed. Well, with Rox. Like, imagine a triangle, an equilateral one. Roxy is the top angle and the line connecting her to the other two are thick and noticeable, the line that is the base and connects the other two is a lot thinner, but still there, because otherwise it wouldn’t be a triangle. Everyone in this marriage, though I’m not legally bound to Calliope, is informed and consenting and connected. 

“And let me tell you this, if anyone ever tries to sell you cheating as polyamory, they are lying.” They glanced at Dave as they spoke.

They sighed softly, “Well, let me show you around, and to your rooms. Oh, and please feel at home here, especially if you are going to stay a while. Oh, and just a side note, if you want or need anything, just write it down and we can get something for you, okay?”

Rose nodded softly, “This was intended to be a one day trip, I’m not sure either of us have more than one change of clothes.”

They nodded again, “Dirk is still in Texas. We can invite him up and ask him to bring clothes.”

“As if, he would bring me terrible outfits, not even intentionally, his fashion taste is that bad.” Dave surprised everyone by talking.

Jane stared a moment then burst out laughing, “God.” Was all they said.

They caught their breath, “Well, I’m sorry about your potential outfits, but I think it’ll be okay.”

“Especially considering you claim all your underwear is stained with spilled beverages.” Rose jumped in.

“Hey. I like to drink soda when I wake up. And let me just tell you, I am not going to wear pants when I wake up, or really be fully there in order not to spill coke on everything.”

Jane laughed again, “Well. I personally think it’ll be fun to have both of you in the house.” They started walking away, Dave and Rose following after.

Not five seconds after they showed them the rooms, the doorbell rang. 

Jane’s eyes got slightly wider. “Probably girl scouts.” They mumbled under their breath, yet they walked towards the front entrance again. 

However, Sebastian had already opened the door. 

“Sebastian. What have I told you about opening the door?”

He turned and faced them over his shoulder, “Not to. But it’s just John, and he’s not going to do anything bad.”

John popped his head in and waved half heartedly. 

“John?” They shook their head lightly, “I don’t care. How did you know it was going to be John? It could have been someone else.”

“But it wasn’t.” He argued. “But fine.” With that, he slammed the door shut, “You can open the door.”

They sighed and walked over to the door, “Sebastian. Why.” They sighed again, “Is your room clean?”

He shrugged. 

“Okay, well go clean it. We’ll have dinner in a bit, okay?”

Sebastian groaned before trudging off down the hall once again. 

Jane opened the door, “John. What the hell are you doing? How did you get here? Do not say you drove.”

John half glared at her, “Your kid slams the door on my face and nearly breaks my entire hand and you ask how I got here?”

“Yes. Because dad would never let you come here, and you shouldn’t be driving in your condition. So answer me, how the hell did you get here?”

“Well.” He faltered, looking down. Suddenly he looked like his eight year old self admitting he broke a vase or something, not a twenty year old man standing on the porch of his relative's home. 

“Well?” Jane prompted. They could have been more gentle about it, but they were too stressed.

“I climbed out my window and stole dad’s car and came here.”

“Oh my god.” They put a hand to their head and walked into the next room over slumping on a chair, leaving the door open.

John sighed and stepped inside, closing the door softly. Subconsciously he bit his lower lip as he took a seat across from her, making his front teeth look bigger than they were. “Jane. I’m sorry, I just… “He faltered again looking down before looking up again. “I didn’t know what to do and I thought I could come here. I can leave…”

“John. No.” They took a deep breath. “You do realize that you should not be driving in your condition, right? And climbing out the window? Second floor John! Why couldn’t you use the fucking door?” They paused, “Oh my god. Dad’s going to be furious. And how the Hell is he supposed to get here? You took his car.” Another pause. There was no way John had keys if he slipped out of the window. “You fucking hot wired it! Oh my god.”

They got up and walked to the kitchen a room away and dug around for a bit before returning with a bottle of scotch and a glass. 

“I would offer you some, but let’s be honest. You’re under age and supposed to be on bed rest because you hit your head.” They spoke as they poured themself a glass, “God. Dad probably thinks your home. He’s going to go up to your room with a plate of cookies and hot chocolate to apologize to your sorry ass then find out you aren’t there, assume you ran away, grab his keys and run out of the house looking for you. BUt wait, the car’s gone!” They took a swig, “He’s goign to figure you hot wired it and drove off. He’ll have no idea where you are or if you’re okay considering you shouldn’t be operating heavy machinery like this. He’s going to think you got into a crash or call the police or something. But they can’t do anything because you’re a ‘responsible’ adult,” They even included air quotes. 

They sighed again. “God. Call dad right now and tell him where you are and that you’re okay.”

“No!” John stood up. “You can’t call him or anything. I don’t care if he has an old man heart attack. Don’t call him. He’ll make me go back to the house and everything will be worse.”

“Damn right it will be worse! You decided to be a child and leave.”

“No. Jane. I don’t care if you kick me out or if you tell me I’m an idiot, which I am, but don’t make me go back. Just please.”

Jane sighed and stood up, taking their drink with them, “I’m not going to kick you out. I am however going to go change out of my work clothes and order pizza, because now I have three unexpected guests.” They left, leaving John alone in the kitchen. 

Dave walked into the kitchen with Jane’s absence, “Stole a car and snuck out? What, are you a sixteen year old felon?”

He sat in Jane’s deserted chair and picked up the scotch. 

John just thunked his head down onto the table and flipped Dave off. “Go away. Seeing you makes me upset and I’m already very stressed and pissed and I want to punch your smug ass for being stupid. So just, leave.”

Dave bit his cheek, “Rude. I’m a great person to talk to.”

“No. You really are not. Last time I talked to you, you punched me.”

“Huh. I guess you’re right.” He was silent for a second, a valuable one on John’s end, but awkward on Dave’s.

“Soooooo,” the blonde began again, “Where do we stand on that one?”

John lifted his head a bit only to stare at Dave in disbelief, “Are you fucking serious right now? Go away. I said we’ll talk tomorrow.”

Luckily for both of them, Jane walked back into the room.

“Jane. Where the hell did your boobs go.” Dave spoke, that being the first thing on his mind.

They rolled their eyes, “Binder.” They walked over to John and ruffled his hair before taking the scotch bottle back from Dave and topping off the glass. “John, I’m going to go to Dad’s house, get the keys, come back here, and drive his car home. He needs his car for work and honestly, you shouldn’t have access to it. I already called him and told him you needed some time to cool down and were going to be here for a bit.”

“What!” He sat up straight, “I told you not to call!”

They sighed, “I know. But he deserves to know. And he said he would let you stay here.”

“Did he? Did he really?” he glared at Jane as he spoke. 

“He relented and said that, yes. But that wasn’t all that he said.”

Dave stood up, “I’m just going. To. Go.” 

Jane turned to him, “Oh, before you do. Pizza will be coming in about an hour. Which means, in half an hour, knock on the studio door and tell Roxy or Calliope to get dressed because they have to sign for it. And text your brother that he can come down if he brings you and Rose more clothes.”

Dave nodded before shuffling out of the room, letting Jane resume their spot at the table. “Are you mad at me John?” They asked softly.

“Yes! You called Dad after I told you not to!”

“I understand you’re upset, but he doesn’t deserve to be left in the dark to worry.”

“But now when I see him again he’ll just say he’s right or make it worse or something.”

“I think you underestimate the love and concern he has for you.”

“Then why would he say something like that!” tears started forming on John’s eyes. Probably not for the first time that evening. 

“What did he do?”

“He said.” He inhaled, taking a deep shaky breath, “He was taking me out of college. Not after the term, just out. He said I couldn't handle it if I kept passing out, and that it was stressing me out. He knows I want to be a doctor or at least get a decent job and he took me out of school. Right after he broke up with Dave for me? He’s controlling my life Jane. And we had a big fight and he told me that I was being naive and ridiculous and if I kept this up I really would never amount to anything, and no amount of college could fix that.”

Jane made a soft clicking sound with their mouth and scooped John into their arms as the first couple of tears started to fall. 

“Honey. I doubt he means it. He just doesn’t know what to do, and he’s stressed out. Being a parent is hard sometimes, because the kid doesn’t understand. They don’t understand what you’ve seen and been through and you just want to make the choice for them. but the only way they'll learn is to let them figure it out on their own.”

“Why can’t he let me figure it out on my own then!”

“Because he loves you and doesn’t want to make a mistake or let you make one either.” They sounded unsure, “I don’t know. I think this is the first time he’s had to deal with something like this. And he knows a lot more than you do, but you don’t want to listen so he wants to make the choice for you. And you have to remember, for the first fifteen years of your life, he had dealt with before. But then the rest was his first time parenting a kid for that.”

John laughed a little. A bitter laugh, not because anything was funny, but because it didn’t make sense. “I don’t understand any of that and you’re pulling it out of your ass.”

“I know. I’m a little drunk. But if you take anything from my ramblings, take this. Being a parent is hard. You want to make every choice for your kid so they don’t get hurt, but you can’t.” They kissed his forehead. 

“John sweety, go take a nap, I think you need one, and I have errands to run.”

He giggled, “A nap?”

“Yes. You need one, and naps is how I govern here, so go take one.” They stepped out of the embrace and grabbed car keys off a hook on the wall, “I’ll be back soon, and Pizza should be here by then.”


	8. Chapter 8

John sat up bolt right, “Oh my god, Jane was drunk driving,”

Dave looked up at him, “Oh, morning sunshine,” 

The wii was on but muted and the room was dark and fuzzy…

“Morning?” John asked groggily. He didn’t even mean to speak, the confused words just tumbled over his tongue and out, just spilling everything he was thinking.

“Yep. Morning. So, Jane drunk drove?”

“Yeah, she was drunk then was driving.”

“Damn. And she was getting on your case for driving.”

John nodded, making the out of focus room around him bob. 

“Why’s it dark?” He asked.

“It’s like, two am. I don’t know what you expected.”

It took John a moment, but he realized what was going on and started blindly groping for his glasses, trying to remember where he put them. 

It dawned on him, he barely remembered going to sleep. Why was he on the couch? Who put the blanket on him? Where the Hell were his glasses?

“I expected it to be morning,” he responded to Dave’s question as he resigned himself to being partially blind. He could find them when it was actually the morning.

“It is. That’s why I said good morning,”

John groaned and kicked out a leg, hoping to hit Dave who sounded like he was near the end of the couch. 

“Ow! Watch it.” He paused the game.

“No.” John lay back down with a sigh, “Why are you even up?”

“Insomnia. Why are you up, did I wake you?”

“Not really. I’ve been asleep since Jane told me to go to sleep. So I guess I got enough sleep.”

“Huh. Well, if you react like you did just now when you wake up at a regular time, then you really aren’t a morning person.”

“Not really. I’m especially not a morning person when I wake up to find and ass hole playing wii racing,”

Dave snorted softly before getting off the floor and plopping on the the couch, his legs draped over John’s calves. “So, while you’re awake, wanna talk?”

“Not really.”

“Come on. You said we would talk tomorrow, and now it’s tomorrow.”

“Dave. The last time we talked, you punched me in the face and I passed out. I was in the hospital for three days.”

Dave sighed and brought a hand up to run through his hair, “Yeah. I wanted to say sorry. For that you know.”

“Oh,” John mumbled out intelligently. “I’m just a little pissed we actually got into a fight. And things escalated, you know?”

“Yeah.” Dave sighed, “You know, Rose told me you still loved me.”

John shrugged, knowing it would go unseen by the Dave, seeing as he was wearing his shades, even though it was like, three am. “I called you after I got out of the hospital and talked to Rose instead, I can’t remember all of it because I hit my head. But I remember I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about and I was pissed.”

Dave nodded, “So like, everything you said was fever dreams?”

“Yeah. Though my fever dreams seem to be brutally honest.”

“Sooooo. Do you love me?”

John groaned, “You’ve heard me say it twice.But I’ve also said your a giant dick wad and I honestly don’t know why I like you and we should break up.”

Dave was silent for a moment. 

“I love you though,” John uttered.

Dave nodded softly, not sure what to say or honestly think. "I like having you love me," he spoke softly, nearly a whisper.

John sighed, "Go get me some cereal."

"Get it yourself,"

"I'm too comfortable. Besides, you're sitting on my lap."

"I'm not!"

John laughed, because everything was funny at three am, “You are too!” He insisted lightly.

“Nah,” Dave leaned over sideways into the empty air, successfully landing him on the rest of John, “I’m just on you, not on your lap.”

John huffed, “Not that I don’t love having you squish me with your fat ass, but I want cereal,”

“Dude, I’m smaller than you. Plus, don’t eat cereal. Your metabolism is asleep so you’ll only feel sick.”

“You don’t know that. I’m hungry, I didn’t get the pizza because I fell asleep.” John spoke as he shifted his position from on his back to on his side, facing the back of the couch, and successfully trapping Dave between him and the cushions. 

A light blush took over Dave’s face, “I, uh, do know. Insomnia.” He blurted out after a minute,

John laughed lightly, “God, I’d say you’re a blushing virgin, but let’s be honest, you’ve had more sex than Roxy and Calliope.”

The light pink blush only barely visible due to the light of Mario kart, grew a shade darker, “Shut up.”

“Fine.” He let out a soft content sigh before closing his eyes again. Still awake, but with eyes closed. 

“Hey, John,”

Finally, something other than Egbert. Though John only grunted in response.

“I love you.” He whispered, or at least spoke softer than their already quiet voices. His eyes closed as well, though his shades were on, making it pretty much pointless. 

A moment passed before John spoke again, proving he was still conscious, “Then why did you cheat on me?”

Almost a minute passed. “I don’t know,” Came the answer, quieter than the last thing he said, though still strong enough to stick in the air. 

John sighed and opened his eyes. “That’s stupid. You’re stupid. I’m sorry, but it’s true, and you know it too.”

Dave didn’t say anything. 

Sighing John just stared at his face. The flush had gone down and his breathing evened out. “Really Dave? Fall asleep at a time like this,”

After a moment of struggle, he managed to get the blanket that was draped on him, presumable by Jane, out from underneath Dave and off of him. With his arm now free, he took off Dave’s shades and reached over his head, placing it on the small table by the couch.

Something clattered and fell to the floor, “Fuck.” He uttered. Probably his glasses. 

With another soft sigh, he promised mentally not to step on those in the morning. 

“Love you you arrogant stupid ass hole,” He leaned forward, capturing Dave’s slightly parted lips with his. “I also hate you,” He whispered softly as he pulled away and close his eyes again, knowing he wouldn’t get much sleep, but just lying there, enjoying Dave’s heat and presence was better than playing Mario kart while it was muted. 

And with toad as the driver. Why Dave, why the hell would you choose toad?

With a small scoff, he closed his eyes, letting himself drift off.

 

James sighed and placed his hat on the rack next to the door as he walked in. 

“Derek,” He called out, not as a question, but as a beckon.

With a smirk, Derek popped his head out from around the corner, “Babe, how did you know I was here?”

“I asked you to come over and you have a habit of breaking into my home when I’m out.”

The blonde fully revealed himself and gave a small dry laugh, “Yeah. Well, lucky for you I was already on my way over. Otherwise you would have waited like, an hour.”

“Huh, I keep forgetting how far away you live considering you love to visit.” 

“I just love visiting you I guess.”

“Yeah,” James muttered as he walked past his boyfriend into the kitchen. He sighed and started a pot of coffee. “Thank God tomorrow is Saturday.”

Derek walked after him, though lingering slightly. with a light sigh, he wrapped his arms around James' middle, “Babe. I know you don’t have to work, but coffee will only make you more wound up. And you’re already pretty damn upset. Why don’t we have some relax sex,”

Honestly, Derek expected him to laugh or get upset, maybe even follow through. Almost any reaction than the one he got.

“Derek?” Oh god, he sounded broken, “Who am I supposed to turn to for help?”

The blonde paused, trying to find the words, “Me?” He guessed.

James sighed, almost disappointed that Derek would suggest himself, “I mean. For parenting? My own parents? You’ve met them, they’re kinda racist and homophobic and I’m pretty sure republican. You? You don’t understand what I’m going through, you’ve had foster kids, but you never gave a flying damn about most of them, and they all left once they turned eighteen.” He paused, “God, I’m so alone in raising my kids. I used to be able to handle it.”

“Babe. You can turn to me for help. I’ll always try to help you. But you’re right about something, I have no idea what you’re going through because you haven’t told me anything. Also, you were right about your parents. They voted for Reagan I’m pretty sure.”

James gave a short laugh, “Reagan. How awful.” He paused again before giving derek a small kiss, “Well, if you say you’ll help, then, I guess I’ll tell. Dave cheated on John and they fought, long story short, John ended up in the hospital. I’m sure that it was an accident, David can’t really control his emotions and lashes out. Regardless, this is a dangerous habit and I don’t want my son getting hurt, so while he was unconscious in the hospital, I broke up with Dave. 

“John of course was upset, but he seemed not terribly so until that fellow visited the day after John went unconscious again due to him. I was upset, so I went and talked to him. Of course I was upset that he was still with him and I talked to him about how the fellow was not only bad, but bad for his health. And then I learned that he was cheating on my son. The nerve. 

“As the angry conversation went on, John said the only reason he went out like a light was because of stress, and normally if he hit his head, it would have been fine but he was stressed and that was all. I blamed college of course. Studying for your doctorate is hard, plus it’s approaching finals and his boyfriend was cheating on him. Clearly he was under too much stress. Long story short, the rest of the argument was about college. I threatened to take him out if he couldn’t handle that, and I said if he couldn’t handle the stress, then he couldn’t handle college or being a doctor, then I left because I was angry.

“But get this. He climbed out his second floor window and hot wired my car and drove to Jane’s. She called. 

“She also drove over in her car to pick me up and get the car back here. But she was drunk.

And driving! I almost expect that from Roxy, but from Jane!”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I think I ruined things with my son, just because I got angry because I care.”

“I feel ya. And I can’t give advice, because caring too much drove Dirk away. And Dave. But, I can tell you this. If you love him. then you’ll find a way to make it work. Like us.”

James smiled. 

Derek continued, “Plus, I don’t think you have much to worry about. Kid wants to be a doctor and not have sex. But Jane. Married two other girls, adopted a kid and drives drunk.”

“Hey. I’m only taking credit for the good things she did. Like tell my brother he has to give up the company. The bad stuff comes from him.”

“Jared is the biological father of John too, right? Well, you can blame him as well.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t raise John partially.”

Derek shrugged, “You can do it anyway. Make Jared your Obama.”

“Fine. Now. What were you saying about sex?”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always write new storied then get confused when my storie count goes up. god i am so sick right now, barely cohenrnt,

Dave woke up from the irritating knocking at his door. Well, he was already half awake but was also in a blissful half-sleep, thinking and resting but barely. And now, some asshole knocking on the front door ruined that for him.

He tried to stretch his arms out but found resistance on either side. He groaned at the new discovery and sat up; eyes still shut against the morning light that was leaking into the room through the cheap blinds. God, he needed his glasses. He sighed softly before trying to remember the layout of the room.

Well, it was in the living room, he remembered that much. However the last time he saw the shades was at 3 AM where he was dead tired and the only light source was the television showing some lil’ mushroom-eating asshole dominating. Wait... shit! No one ever turned off that damn thing.

Whoever was at the door knocked again; more agitated this time. He sighed and fumbled around, still sitting on the couch with John being a loaf next to him. There has to be a table or something around, right?

He reached behind him and felt around. Cold metallic frames of aviators made contact with his skin. Yes, got them. He slipped them on and opened his eyes. Ah yes, morning. It was stupid but not as stupid as the person knocking on the door. He looked at the screen, expecting it to still be where he last saved, but instead Sebastian was playing it.

“Yo,” He greeted; voice a little soft from sleep.

Sebastian looked over his shoulder to reply before turning back to his game. He watched a moment, mainly watching him make his character drive into walls. Something about it struck him as odd but then it hit him. The sound was off.

“Why’s it mute?” He shrugged, not turning to face him this time.

“I dunno. The sound won’t go up. I tried,”

“Huh… And here I was thinking you just wanted to be considerate to the people sleeping,”

“No. Do you know how to make the sound go up?”

The knocking came again, though this time, was constant.

Dave sighed, “Yeah. I’ll help you out after I come back from answering the door. Hey, if you were up, why didn’t you answer it?”

“Mommy says not to open the door. I don’t know why. And I like playing games, not talking to people,”

Again, he just shrugged and didn’t turn back.

“Cool,”

The knocking was still going in the background. Dave sighed again. Stupid fucking person at the door. Who the hell even knocks like that? If no one answered, they weren’t home. Well, he’d answer the damn door but only because they were annoying and he wanted to yell at them.

He threw his legs over John; briefly sitting on him in a way that wasn’t quite actually sitting on the egderp. The poor kid needs his sleep. And he could just sort of… hop over him.

Only one thing wrong with that, he landed on something which didn’t sound so good. The sound of cracking glass filled the air for a moment; though just to say it cracked was a bit of an understatement.

It crunched over Dave’s weight as he stood on glass. Why the hell there was glass on the floor? Who the fuck puts glass on the floor in the first place? Despite the reason, it hurt.

“Motherfuck!” He yelled loudly. Okay, hurt is also an understatement…

Sebastian finally looked away from the screen, his little eyes wide, “That’s a bad word!”

“I don’t fucking care!”

He lifted up his foot to see what he stepped on. To his delight, it was glasses. Probably John’s pair. Well, those certainly aren’t useful any more, unless John wanted to wear smashed glasses that were blood stained. Wait…

He looked at his foot. Yep it was bleeding. Fuck.

“You’re bleeding,” Sebastian pointed out.

“No shit,”

“That’s another bad word. Do you need a band aid?”

“Whatever. There’s still probably glass in there or some shit,”

Sebastian put up another finger to match the two already up. Another cuss.

The insistent knocking on the door still hadn't stopped, causing Dave to groan, “Ugh… Is no one else here but the kid awake?” Sebastian only shrugged, “I can go wake up one of my moms,”

He offered meekly as the little character in the car idled in front of a wall, getting lapped by Bowser. “Yeah, go do that. Don’t tell her I swore,” He waved a hand, honestly, not giving two shits at the moment.

Sebastian nodded before getting up and running off. With Seb out of sight, he started hobbling towards the door. He kept on his heel, not wanting to dig the glass shards further into his foot. Finally he got to the door, leaving a little trail of blood drops on the way. He yanked open the door with his usual neutral face replaced with a scowl. He spoke before the door was even open, or he could identify who was at the door.

“What the hell? It’s the fucking morning, people are trying to sleep and shit. You don’t just go knocking on doors like that and especially not if your needless cries for someone to open the goddamn door in contradiction to a popular song goes unheard or at least unanswered. What kind of fuck wad are you?”

Dirk’s hand hung mid knock in the air, his neutral expression remaining unlike the others.

“I’m your brother. That’s the kind of fuck wad I am,”

His gaze went up and down Dave’s figure, though the movement of such went unnoticed.

“You have sex last night?” He asked after a minute.

The question caught Dave off guard. “No…? Why would you ask that?”

“Because you've been having a lot of sex recently and the fact that you took forever to get up. Plus, that’s not your shirt,”

He pointed at Dave’s oversized shirt that read ‘I’m not a morning person; I’m a morning princess’ with an illustration of a sleepy girl being pampered.

“It’s Rose’s shirt. I didn't have any pyjamas,”

Dirk nodded, “You’re bleeding,”

“No shit,”

Dave left post at the door and limped over to a couch, tracking more blood from his little puddle that formed to a chair.

“Go find a first aid kit. Did you bring me clothes?”

Dirk stepped inside, closing the door, “Is that the first thing you say to your brother when you see him?”

“Yeah, but I saw you yesterday. Now go, before I bleed on you,”

“Wow, is someone on their period?”

“Yes, now fucking get me a pad or something,”

Dirk shrugged and walked off, throwing a large duffle bag at Dave before he did so. Jane walked in, with their hair all mussed up and glasses askew. At least those glasses weren’t totally destroyed.

“God, Dave! What happened to your foot?”

Their eyes got wider as they noticed the blood coming from his foot.

“Stepped on John’s glasses,” He shrugged, though he winced as they touched his foot.

They tutted, softly, “Well, let me go get a first aid kit,”

“Nah, it’s okay. Dirks getting one, I think,”

They looked confused, “No. He’s eating cereal in the kitchen. I just saw him,”

“Fuck. That fucking boy,”

That earned him a smack upside the head.

“Hey! We have young ears in the house!”

They walked off, presumably to go get a bandaid or some shit.

Sebastian stayed behind. “There. I got my mom. Now you need to go fix the TV sound,”

Dave sighed again before getting off the chair, making as much noise as he possibly could. Sebastian just looked on silently, following the trail of crimson on the hardwood floors like a trail of breadcrumbs as Dave hobbled to the remote. He grabbed the remote off the floor and deactivated mute.

Immediately, sound filled the air. The stupid fucking Mario theme song, jumping from mute to the highest setting, as was chosen by Sebastian. Just as immediately as the sound turned up, John sat up, “Mario? What?”

Dave looked on him in disbelief, “I can smash your glasses and yell obscenities at your nephew while some douchebag with admittedly great hair tried to knock down the door, and you wake up for Mario,”

He squinted, blinking slowly for a moment while he gathered his wits. And the blaring theme song wasn't helping.

“You smashed my glasses?”

“Yeah... They were on the floor,”

“Fuck,”

He didn’t even sound disappointed.

 

“Hey. Watch your language, we have young ears,”

John sighed, “Fine. Well, I hope my glasses hurt your foot,”

“Don’t worry they did,”

Dave leaned against the wall, the bottom of his one foot still facing up as it dripped the red liquid down to the floor. John snorted, but didn't say anything else.

The room filled with silence. The social type of silence, of course. Sebastian didn't turn down the music, apparently finding it acceptable to blow out everyone's eardrums with repetitive music and Mario’s ‘woohoo-ing.’

“So… we okay?” Dave asked after a moment.

“Nope. You owe me glasses and you have to be my guide for the day considering I’m blind as balls,”

Dave nodded, changing to shaking his head half way through. “No, I mean are we okay? Like… romantically or whatever,”

John sighed, “I love you and I’m not going to stop. However, you need to change. Maybe I need to change too in certain aspects. But…” 

He shrugged, “Come here,”

“I’m bleeding here, Egderp. I’d rather not track blood across the carpet and get Jane mad,”

“Just come here,”

Dave sighed before staggering towards John. John did something that surprised him. He pulled him on top of him and kissed him. Dave pulled away after a moment, all too aware of John’s hands holding him close.

“Not that I’m complaining, but can you explain?”

“No. I kissed you because that’s the only explanation I have for how I feel and where we are. Just go with it. Please?”

Dave gave a short nod, “Okay,”

He leaned in for another kiss. One he got. Jane walked in, “God, you two keep it in your pants. Dave, stop moving around, you’re getting blood every where. And Sebastian. Turn that down!”


End file.
